NORTHERN IRELAND:LEADING BRITISH banks have been urged to help the North's ailing construction sector as a key industry group warns that up to 4,500 jobs could go before the end of the winter.

The Northern Ireland Construction and Property Group, which represents thousands of workers in the construction and property sectors, said that the North urgently needs to find a local solution to inject life back into the sector.

The group has held talks with the British Bankers' Association (BBA) to try to secure a commitment from financial institutions that they will not take any steps which would further destabilise the market.

Brendan Cunnane, secretary of the construction group, said that no one should underestimate how serious the situation was in the North. "We are aware from our membership that there are redundancy programmes still being triggered. During the middle of this year we surveyed our group and found that the workforce of those members had been reduced by up to 70 per cent.

"Four months later, we have witnessed no let-up and are predicting that it could be a bleak winter, with up to 4,500 jobs being lost in our membership alone."

He said that his group had appealed to the BBA to find a way of reintroducing liquidity into the market by making affordable mortgages available, particularly to first-time buyers.

"Our experience is that the banks seem to fail to acknowledge that there is a link between their mortgage business and their exposure to the residential property market. We need to work with the financial services industry to help our members and the wider industry build out of the problems we find ourselves in," he added.

He said that leading players in the construction sector were very concerned that the Assembly had still not met and his industry group was urging ministers to get back round the table to work harder to help local people. It is understood that the SDLP MP and MLA Alasdair McDonnell intends to table a motion in Stormont over the coming weeks to call on the Assembly to outline its support for a number of key measures to help the North's construction sector.

The new initiative from the construction group comes as the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee starts its two-day meeting today to set UK interest rates. Some economists are predicting that the bank will move to cut the rate, which is currently 5 per cent.

But Mr Cunnane says this would only be "a drop in the ocean" for members of the Northern Construction and Property Group.